Silo



C. M. STAFFORD.

SILO.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT. I. |917. 1,330,821. Patented leb.17,1920. 3 EEEETS EEEEEE l.

C. M. STAFFORD.

SILO.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT. I. 1911.

15330,821. l Patented Feb.17,1920.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

CHARLES M. STAFFORD, 0F MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA.

SILO.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Feb. 17, 1920.

Application led September l, 1917. Serial No. 189,248.

To all whom t 'may concern Be it known that I, (3i- ARLES M. STAFFORD, acitizen of the United States, residing at Minneapolis, in the county ofHennepin and State of Minnesota, have invented certain new and usefulImprovements in Silos; and I do hereby declare the following to be afull, clear, and eXact description of the invention, such as will enableothers skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use thesame.

My invention has for its obj ect to provide an improved wall structure,the term wall structure being used in a very broad and liberal sense to'include such structures as roofs and arches; and to suoli ends,generally stated, the invention consists of the novel devices andcombinations of devices hereinafter described and defined in the claims.

Stated more delinitely, the invention has for its object to provide aso-called wall construction which may be very cheaply constructed anderected, from lumber, such as QXts that are of suoli short lengths thatthey have very little commercial value. For instance, it is a custom forsaw mills to discard 2X4s that are t feet and less in length, as lumber,and to use the same as fuel. In some instances these short pieces havebeen used for commercial purposes other than fuel, but they always havea relatively low commercial value as compared with longer lengths.

A wall structure of the kind involving my invention is particularlyadapted for use in the construction of Silos, grain bins, and the like,but as indicated, has great utility in a much more extensive field.

In the accompanying drawings which illustrate several applications orembodiments of vmy invention, like characters indicate like partsthroughout the several views, Referring to the drawings,

Figure 1 is a plan view showing a polygonal silo embodying my invention,the roof thereof being omitted;

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary perspective view of the silo shown in Fig. 1,several of the wall forming elements being loosely shown at random, laidupon the concrete licor of the structure;

Fig. 3 is a detail in perspective showing a portion of the concrete baseand one section of one of the so-called anchor rods;

Fig. fl is a perspective view showing the so-called wall structure usedas a roof or trussed arch;

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary perspective illustrating the manner in which thewall of a silo, or the like, may be built up in sections, and thesections assembled, as entireties;

Fig. 6 is a transverse vertical section taken on the line 9-9 of Fig. 5;and

F ig. 7 is a view corresponding to Fig. 6, but illustrating a slightlymodified construction.

Referring first to the construction illustrated in Figs. 1, 2 and 3, thenumeral 11 indicates a concrete base and the numeral 12 indicatesso-called anchor rods, the lower ends of which are embedded in theconcrete base. The wall is a polygonal structure in which the wallforming timbers extend on the chords of an arc that circuinscribes thewall structure; and the so-called anchor rods 12 are arranged in groupsof three at the angles of the wall structure. The anchorrods 12 may beof different construction and arrangement, but advisably, they are madeof half round pieces, towit with lapped joints, so that they may bebuilt up to any desired height in the process of erection, and after thelower sections have been embedded in the concrete base at their lowerends.

In the construction of silos and various other structures which requireclose solid walls, the improved wall structure is made up of relativelylong timbers 13 and relatively short timbers 14. In the larger silos,the so-called long timbers 13 will usually have a length of about fourfeet, while the .so-called short timbers 14 will be of less length, andthe difference in the length between the timbers 13 and lt'will vary,depending upon how many of the longer timbers are employed for anyparticular silo or other structure, and the angles at which the longtimbers are set, relative to each other, on the chords of the circledescribed about the common center of the 'silo or other structure, but,in all cases, the shorter timbers 11 will be of considerable less lengththan the long timbers and of the proper length to lill the space betweenthe alternate members of the long timbers in the same course.

The wall is built up in horizontal layers and each layer consists of thelong and short timbers alternately positioned, circumferentially, andall ofthe said timbers are provided with perforations which adapt angle.

them to be strung or slipped onto the said rods, in the arrangementillustrated in the drawings. The ends of the short timbers 14 arevbeveled so that they closely [it the abutting inner edges of thehorizontally alined long timbers 13, and the outer ends of the longtimbers are beveled so that they lie in the plane of the outer surfacesor edges of the said short sections 14. Inasmuch as the wall structurewill have many sides, towit, more than four sides, it follows that theconnected wall sections will stand at an obtuse angle to each other, andconsequently, that the abutting long and short timbers will have anoverlap that is much greater than the horizontal width of the timbers.In Fig. 2, the rod receiving perforations in the loose timbers 13 and 14are indicated, respectively at 13a and 14a. Not only are the long andshort timbers 13 and 14 alternately arranged circumferentially in thesame horizontal layer or course, but the long timbers 13 are alternatedwith the short timbers 14 Vertr cally in the adjacent courses, so thatthe ends of the long timbers 13 of the one course overlap with the endsof the long timbers of the next lower and next higher course. This givesa strong Ajoint connection in which, when the overlapped ends are firmlyunited, a strong trussed structure is produced. In the arrangement shownin Figs. 1, 2 and 3, the 'corner groups of three rods are located, oneat theV angle and one at each side of the Otherwise, stated, the centralmembers of each group are passed through the overlapped ends of the longtimbers 13,

Vwhile the side members are passed through the alternately laid long andshort timbers. The beveled ends of the short timbers, by closeengagement with'the inner edges of the long timbers, form bases whichpositively prevent buckling of the connected wall sections on thecentral rods 12 as a hinge. Of course, all buckling action may befurther prevented by nailing together the overlapped ends of the longtimbers when desired.

With the arrangement of the built-up rods 12 illustrated vin Fig. 3, therods may be extended to any desired height, step by step, asthe wallstructure is built up. Preferably, the connection between the rods andperforations in the timbers will be loose so that the timbers of thewall will be free to expand when moist and under their own weight alone,or the added weight of the roof structure, will settle when dry, andthus avoid formation of open oints; and for this reason, in manystructures, the use of nails is advisably entirely avoided, becausenails interfere with the settling of the timbers after expansion andsubsequent contraction.

VThe so-called roof or trussed arch structure shown 1n Fig. 4, may beassumed to be bullt up on the same plan as the structure trussed archstructure shown in Fig. 4 is ca pable of being used in many differentways, either singly or in plural arrangement. For example, in forming abridgestructure, a series of these arches might be employed to supportthe bridge ioor' structure.

The so-called wall structure, instead of' forming a complete wall, mightform only portions, such as the spacing rings or hoops of a wallstructure made up thereof and of boards nailed thereto, either insidecroutside or both. Y Y' In the several wall structures so far described,the process ofv erection has been assumed to be by laying the timbers incourses,

but Figs. 5, 6 and 7 illustrate how a wall structure, such as that shownin Figs. 1 and 2, may be built up on the Vground or on a bench, insections, and the sections erected and assembled as entireties. Fig.r5,for example, shows two erected sections and one section still lying Hatonthe concrete base 11. In this method of erection, it is not feasibleto anchor the lower ends of the rods in the concrete in advance of theerection of the sections. If similar anchoring or connecting rods areemployed, they should be passed through the proper perforations beforethe sections are erected; and in Fig. 6, such rods are indicated at 12a.In Fig. 7, the long and short timbers are shown as connected by nails18. Y

In the construction of walls in silos and other buildings in accordancewith my invention, such structures are provided with many sides, towit,always more than four,

and preferably .so many sides that the wallV approximates, 1n a generalway, a cylindrical wall. The advantages of this are many. In the firstplace, it is necessary in order to use short lumber or timbers, and

in the second place, it arranges to'connectV sides at obtuse angles onthe lines of short chords of approximately cylindrical structure, andthis gives a long lap to the overlappedends of the long timbers and,moreover, provides an arrangement in which the beveled or obliquely cutends of the short timbers afford goodV braces for preventing angularmovements of the sides of the wall. rIhus a Vwell trussed structure thatwill not-collapse is produced in a very simple and cheap manner. Y

From the standpoint of economy, the advantage in being able to usecommercially laoV the short timbers of two dierent lengths can scarcelybe overstated. It is a well known fact that the Pacific Coast region isthe chief source of the lumber supply for the United States and Canada,at the present time, and the shortest listed commercial length from theprincipal Pacilic Coast mills has hitherto been siX feet. The shorterlengths, as a rule, have simply been allowed to go to waste, being runto the burner or so-called hell-hole and burned up. In the more thicklypopulated central or Eastern States, comparatively little lumber is cut,at the present time, and, in some instances, some of the shorter cuts offour or five feet in length have been used for boxes or for fuel. So faras I know, however, I am the first to design any commercial structure inlarge demand, such as silos, wherein these shorter cuts from thel bigmills can be, and would naturally be employed, in an extensive way,sufficient to establish these short cuts as commercial lumber. This isparticularly true in respect to the shorter of the two lengths of thecuts employed in my above disclosed structure. Silos are now used notonly to store green food for cattle and hogs, but for fowl; and hence,they range greatly in size. They are practically always cylindrical, orapproximately cylindrical, but vary greatly in diameter and in height.The cattle or stock food silos usually run from about ten to eighteenfeet in diameter, but the small or so-called chicken silos usually runfrom about four to eight feet in diameter. My structure is also adaptedfor use as a water or other liquid tank, and, of course, such tanks aremade of a great diversity of diameters.

When the silos or tanks are of therelatively small diameters, abovenoted, the longer of the two timbers would not eX- ceed two or threefeet and the shorter might not exceed one or two feet.

From the foregoing, it will be seen that my invention provides acommercial structure, which will utilize as lumber practically all ofthe short cuts from the big mills, which have hitherto gone to waste;and it further follows that this short cut lumber can be had at a lowerprice, thus enabling silos and tanks to be available to the farmer at amuch lower cost. My invention, therefore, effects a radical improvementin this art of great commercial value, especially at this particulartime, when such great efforts are being made to maximize the foodproducts from the land.

That I claim is:

l. The combination with a suitable base, of a substantially cylindricalwall structure having more than four sides set about a common center, atobtuse angles in respect to each other and composed of a plurality oflayers or courses of timbers of two different lengths alternated in eachcircumferential layer or course and also alternated vertically in thesuccessive courses, with the long timbers overlapped at both of theiropposite meeting ends and the short timbers having beveled ends disposedto fill the Spaces between the long timbers with their beveled endsbearing against the inner faces of the long timbers, and rods anchoredin said base at the meetin'g angles of the chords of the arc and passingthrough perforations in all the overlapped ends of the long timbers thusalways connecting the same with freedom to rise or fall thereon tocompensate for expansion and contraction.

Q. The vcombination with a suitable base, of a substantially cylindricalwall structure having more than four sides set about a common center, atobtuse. angles in respect to each other and composed of a plurality oflayers or courses of timbers of two different lengths alternated in eachcircumferential layer or course and also alternated vertically in thesuccessive courses, with the long timbers overlapped at both of theiropposite meeting ends and the short timbers having beveled ends disposedto lill the spaces between the long timbers with their beveled endsbearing against the inner faces of the long timbers, rods anchored insaid base at the meeting angles of the chords of the arc and passingthrough perforations in all the overlapped ends of the long timbers, andother rods anchored in said base and passing through p'erforations inall of the long and all of the short timbers, whereby said elements areall interlocked with freedom for the timbers to rise and fall tocompensate for expansion and contraction, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

CHARLES M. STAFFORD.

litnesses HARRY D. KILGoRE, F. D. MERCHANT.

